Gardens, Goats, and More: Climate Action Palestine

I am proud to report that Gardens, Goats, and More completed a thoughtful proposal process with our four Community Based Org partners and Rebuilding Alliance distributed grants to all four in late July.  Here are the results for two of the partners, and I look forward to sharing more about the others soon.

Al Basma Club for the Disabled (ABCD) in north Gaza, introduced six more families to the program. In keeping with ABCD's mission, they prioritized the poorest families who have members with disabilities. 

Executive Director, Mr. Eid Shaqura, met with all six and asked them about their living situations. This thoughtful process fleshed out not just their needs but their individual stories in a way that gave them dignity and respect. 

• Father of two, Muhammad, is deaf and married to a deaf woman. Herb and vegetable plants combined with his gardening experience help him feed his family. 

• Amputee, Mahmud, lives in Jabalya Refugee Camp. Instead of receiving chickens as originally planned, he purchased rabbits because rabbit meat brings a higher price in the market, and he can double production every two months.

• Wissam, an experienced fisherman with five children, was made disabled by polio. The fishing nets and ropes he received allow him to continue making a living.

• Ra'id was already making some income from a small cart selling coffee and tea. He expanded his offerings with locally-produced fresh fruit and vegetables and with his new juice machine, he is also selling fresh-squeezed juice. Additionally, his new tent, plastic chairs, cups, and a stovetop makes him the go-to vendor in the neighborhood.

• Osama is a married father of two children with experience in taking care of animals. He is a double-leg amputee who uses a wheelchair. He and his wife received a 4-month-old cow so they can eventually have a business selling milk and butter.

• A'thar lives with her brother (who has a hearing disability), her brother's child, and two sisters. She received a goat and the supplies to care for it. She has experience taking care of goats because her father also raised them.

Meanwhile, the Women Programs Center Rafah (WPCR), in south Gaza, moved forward with another six families as well. The four families in their pilot first phase are doing well and are recovering from some damage incurred to their animals and garden during the bombings in May. One beneficiary, Aqela, lost two chickens and some plants because of toxic gas from bombings nearby. Another woman, Amira, lost a baby goat and part of her garden as well. However, Executive Director of WPC-R, Najah Ayash, assured that these damages are nothing they can't come back from. 

In fact, Mrs. Ayash says Amira is doing an excellent job.  Amira, pictured above, is making good profit from her chickens and eggs. Amira attended an agricultural conference in Cairo so she can apply what she learned to her garden. She is growing watermelon, eggplant, corn, parsley, tomatoes and more in her garden and her goat gave birth to two kids.

During the bombings, these gardens became an invaluable resource to families sheltering at home. Rafah Coordinator, Kareem, said: "During the war on Gaza, many people were not able to get outside their homes because of the bombing, and they were facing hard times finding a way to buy food. Luckily, their home gardens were able to provide them with some vegetables to use in cooking, like okra, pepper, tomatoes and potatoes, which were enough to make a meal during these hard circumstances."

Thank you so much for your continued support. Because of you, families can access a sustainable, healthy source of food and even develop a small business to provide for their children.

Links:

• UN Report About the Impact of May's Missile Attacks
• A calf for Ossama and his family in N.Gaza -21 second video
• Mahmoud raises rabbits in Jabalya Camp, Gaza - 26 second video

In our last report, I told you that this project would be providing sheep instead of goats, but it turns out there was a minor translation issue. A week after that report was submitted, Rebuilding Alliance received pictures of when our NGO partners provided the animals and plants, and there was no mistaking that those animals were definitely goats! I apologize for that error. The goats provide milk and cheese for the families to eat and also sell in the local market.

We worked with two of our NGO partners for this pilot project, Women Programs Center Rafah (WPCR) and Youth Vision Society (YVS). Each chose 4 families that could accomodate animals and a small garden. 

Women Programs Center Rafah:

Last Friday, March 12, two baby goats were born from a goat we gave to a WPCR beneficiary, Rania. Besides the goat, she has 10 chickens which produces enough eggs so that her family can eat some, and the rest can be sold to the market. In her garden, there's parsley, dill, potatoes, lettuce, and arugula. Like the eggs, she sells some in the market, and it earns her enough to buy milk and diapers for her youngest son.  

Another WPCR beneficiary, Amira, expects that her goat will give birth soon as well. She promised our photographer in Gaza, Mohammed, that she would call him as soon as the goat gave birth. Mohammed took the pictures you see in this report, and he's excited to make a film for you about the goats. Mohammed told Amira to call him day or night, and he will take a taxi to film the birth. Amira's garden has parsley, onion, potato, beans, garlic, olive and guava trees, cabbage, and peas.

Ejmeea, the matriarch of the third family under WPCR, also received a goat and 10 chickens. Unfortunately, the chickens died from the cold weather, and she fed the chickens to her family instead of letting food go to waste. On the bright side, her garden is doing well. She planted cabbage, cauliflower, parsley, potatoes, beans, and peas. She sells some of these to the market and cooks the rest. 

The fourth beneficiary is Aqela, who is 70 years old. She received a goat and planted cabbages, cauliflower, potatoes, parsley, beans, peas and olive trees in her garden. Her garden helps her take care of her month-old grandchild who has a calcium deficiency. 

The Youth Vision Society gave each of their families 10 chickens and 1 goat. They made sure to include fodder in their distribution so the families didn't have to worry about needing to buy fodder for their new goats. YVS reported that it was hard to find pregnant goats because the goat sellers wanted to keep these goats to themselves. However, they reached out to their network and managed to find people willing to sell them.

YVS has many more families who would like to participate in this program, and they hope they will be able to include them in the future. One beneficiary, Ahmed expressed his gratitude, and said "I expect that this project will have huge impact on my life as I believe it will help me meet my daily needs. Most recently, I couldn't afford my household daily expenses, so I believe this will help me a lot. Thanks, Rebuilding Alliance."

Thank you so much for helping Palestinian families get back on their feet. Look how much positive change your donations have made in their lives. We look forward to giving you more updates on these families in the next report, and we hope to extend the program as soon as possible.

P.S. Stay tuned for Climate Action Week on April 19-23 when donations will be matched 100% (up to $2000 cap for each organization).